Editor’s Note: Famed botanist David Douglas was one of the first people to leave a written account of traveling via river through this region. After traversing the Chehalis River, he is now preparing to head overland to what he called the Cow-a-lidsk River, or the Cowlitz. Read previous installments at https://chronline.com/chehalis-river/.
As naturalist and explorer David Douglas prepared to leave the Chehalis River valley in October of 1825, having traveled 60 miles upstream from present-day Aberdeen, he left us this description of the Chehalis:
“This river is a large stream, nearly as large as the Thames, very rapid in many parts with cascades. The banks are rocky, steep, and covered with the like woods as are found on the Columbia.”
Unable to continue back toward Fort Vancouver any longer on the increasingly shallow and rocky Chehalis River, he decided it was time to go overland. He went looking for a tribal member to carry his baggage by horse over the shallow hills east of present-day Napavine and Winlock until he could put into the Cowlitz River.
He found the locals were tough negotiators.
“At the village where I put up, I bargained with an Indian to carry my baggage on his horse to the Cow-a-lidsk River, one of the northern branches of the Columbia. I had some difficulty with this fellow in accomplishing my end; he was the most mercenary rascal I have seen,” Douglas wrote in his journal. “I had to give him twenty shots of ammunition, two feet of tobacco, a few flints, and a little vermilion.”
In what might not be a surprise to those of us familiar with Pacific Northwest Novembers, he found himself surrounded by mud and flood. It was tough going.
“The following day rained so heavily that I could not proceed. Early on the 13th I set out with my two Indians on foot, the horse carrying my little baggage with the owner. The distance may be about forty miles, and a very bad road owing to the late heavy rains; much water was in the hollows, and the little creeks and rivulets so much swollen that my clothes were often off three times swimming across some of them.
“In the afternoon the rain fell in torrents, and as the country was an entire plain and no commodious place for camping, I was urged to exert myself to endeavour to reach the Cow-a-lidsk, which I accomplished at sundown, being greatly fatigued.”
As they trekked overland toward present-day Toledo, they were greeted with the sight of Mount St. Helens on the horizon.
After a miserable slog, they found comfort in the house of Cowlitz Chief Scanewa, which Douglas wrote as Schachanaway.
“At Schachanaway's or the chief of the Chenook tribe's house, I learned he had just returned from a trading visit from other parts and had brought with him a bag of potatos, flour, a little molasses, and rum, of all of which I had a portion and a comfortable night's lodging. A small boat had been lent to him, which I considered fortunate, as it enabled me to proceed without delay.”
Next time: Back home with a freshening breeze.
